I jogged 2 miles!!!

I jogged 2 miles!!!!!!!!

This is an exciting moment and I want to blog about it because I want to always remember these moments. I have been working on the couch to 5K program for 10 weeks or so. I have to keep repeating week 8 because I either slack and don't get my three jogs in, or I quit jogging and have to walk during it. So anyways, today was a major achievement! Never mind that it took me nearly 30 minutes... 13.5 min for the first mile and 15.5 for the second mile. But so what. I jogged. I jogged 2 miles.  3 months ago I wouldn't have imagined I would ever jog 2 miles. Therefore, I have hope that by next spring I'll be running 4 miles. Sure, why not?
    I haven't been blogging, but I have been exercising since July 1. I started swimming this summer and was up to 18-24 laps 3-4 times a week. Not all front crawl. I'd occasionally grab a kick board for a lap, or do back stroke, etc. Most importantly, I fell in love with swimming. Then at the end of August I started Couch to 5k. I didn't blog tho, because I didn't want my focus to be weight loss and dieting. I wanted it to be exercise and an active lifestyle. Ok, So now that I'm exercising, I have to come to terms with the fact that diet is important too. Perhaps more important to scale than exercise. So, here I am.  Celebrating a 2 mile jog today - and hoping for many more. I'm so thankful!

Settling into a Green lifestyle

Weight: 266.9

I'm pleased about the weight loss, though I wish it would have been more. Not quite 2 lbs in 6 days. But i know, I know--- slow is the way to go. And besides-- I did have pizza over the weekend, and Olive Garden. And goodness knows I'm done with that!

I think I'm settling in to eating one meal a day and juicing once a day and drinking a green smoothie once a day. It seems to be working. I feel prety good. I think that I got so stressed out and so symptomatic with acid reflux and anxiety due to working night shift and school and family life, that its taken a while to fully get back on track.  Today, I feel pretty good. Last night Jimmy made chocolate cookies but not only have I not eaten any, but I am actually AFRAID of them. I'm afraid that if I eat one, I'll fall completely off the wagon. I suppose in time, I'd prefer to not be afraid of them, but to be repulsed by them. Yes, I'd like to view sweets as a deadly poison, rather than an intoxicating delicacy.

I'm working the next 2 nights and I'll have my juices and smoothies made ahead of time. Its all good!
God is good!

Olive Garden or the Garden of Eden?

 

Weight: 268.3
lbs. lost= 6.7  (my starting weight a few weeks ago was 275)

Well, something weird or wonderful is happening. In the last week that I haven't consumed caffeine nor sugar, and have done vegetable juicing each day and limited my food intake to just once a day, I'm simply not hungry. There is no doubt in my mind that filling up on Mean Green Monster juices (kale, cucumber, celery, broccoli, lemon and an apple) is filling up my body with such potent nutrition that evidently it satiates me and I'm not hungry.

I mean, I get hungry, but only about twice a day. It is just SOOOOO WEIRD. But I like weird. I'm okay with this kind of weird. All my life I have battled cravings that are so intense, that I literally think about food all the time-- mostly junk food and sugary foods. This confirms my belief even more that sugar and processed foods are addictive in nature. The more you eat, the more you want to eat.

At any rate, my mom and dad were down here this weekend. I've eaten a few things that I really didn't want to eat-- like pizza. But I kept my portions small. But tonight we went to Olive Garden. Prior to Olive Garden tonight, I had raw apple pie and blackberries for breakfast, and a mean green juice for lunch. At Olive Garden it struck me that there really aren't any healthy foods at Olive Garden. Atleast not what I want to eat. The salad-- while delicious, consists mostly of iceberg lettuce which has minimal nutrients in it; croutons that are processed, and who only knows how much oil and sugar in the dressing. The warm, melt-in-your-mouth breadsticks are pure white flour, which is a big no-no in my book, since my goal is to avoid sugar and flour. Honestly after tonight's breadsticks, I'm now ready to commit to "no flour" as a committment, not just a goal.  I ordered Eggplant Parmesan, and while I didn't eat the spaghetti that came with it, I knew full well that the eggplant was fried, and not my friend. Bless!

Eating out is losing its appeal. I have felt better in the last few days than I've felt in so long, and I really want it to continue. I really do not want to eat sugar, flour or processed, or fried foods. I'm not going to. I'm looking forward to starting over tomorrow with juicing and green smoothies only for a few days. Yeah!

Juice on!

Last August I did a 10 day juice fast, and felt really wonderful, and lost about 8 lbs. Well, since then as I've gained it all back, plus some, and have returned to the standard American diet, I occasionally still make a green smoothie or some juice. For the last week I've been juicing once a day. But today I joined a group of friends on facebook and have stepped it up to 100% juicing and blending for the week.

So far so good. I made a green smoothie this morning consisting of : Collard greens, bananas and and orange. There was enough that I had it for breakfast and for lunch. I've also drank alot of water today. I'm getting ready to go make some juice soon.  I'm really really tired tho, and I wonder if its because I'm starving, or because of the lack of caffeine, not sure. At any rate, I haven't felt well lately, so I'm commiting to this juice fast this week to see if it helps boost my energy levels. I also know the importance of walking, and will be going for a walk later this evening.

I will post my weight soon. Two weeks ago I was 272, so I hope I'm well below that by now. I have this love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with the scale, and I dread weighing more than anything else.

For more info on juicing, please watch the documentary, "Fat, sick and nearly dead".

Twinkies at 3am....

   

Twinkies or Oranges????

That was my dilemma this morning.  At 0300 your brain does weird things to you. Here I've been juicing and eating healthier this week, and those stupid twinkies made me stop and look twice. By the miracle of God, I was able to logically think thru that the twinkies would feel like heaven on my tongue, but would make my body and mind feel like CRAP afterwards. The orange, tho, would still taste very juice and sweet, and would leave only positive happy effects on my body.

So,  ate the orange!!

For today folks, I'm trying to add in the good foods, and am trying to eliminate all flours and sugars. That is my goal. I'm not there. I'm down to 1/2 cup coffee about every other day, and I do still need the sweet creamers in it. But-- I'm juicing atleast once a day, and making a green smoothie once a day. Trying to only eat one meal a day. I'll post my weight soon. Its a journey. Oh yes, and I'm also trying to space out my eating with 4-5 hours in between.

Go big orange!!

SUGAR..... Is Poison!



This is really all I have to say today. The sugar addiction continues in my life. And I forgot that great idea about eating popsicles first....

Green Smoothies and Chia Seeds

Good Sunday morning! I have learned during the last 2 months that my weight goes up when I work my 2-3 night shifts. I think, besides the temptation to eat to stay awake at 4am, that it simply messes with my metabolism to be awake all night and sleeping all day. So, rather than be discouraged, I just don't weigh during my 3 nights that I work.

So now I'm off for the next 4 days, yeah!

This morning I'm drinking a large green smoothie. It consists of orange juice, fresh pineapple, frozen bananas, fresh kale, and chia seeds.

As for exercise- I discovered something the other day. We live at the top of a rather long, steep hill. The other day I wondered if walking up and down the hill 4-5 times (it took 30 minutes to do), would be the same as walking on a 8% incline on the treadmill at the gym. Oh my goodness! Walking up and down that hill several times was obviously much better than the incline, because I've had sore muscles from my calves to my hips ever since that day. So-- I'm going to do the same today.

Sore muscles today

Wt: 271.8

Gotta love how the water weight falls off right away.... geesh.

I'm on my way out the door but wanted to say a few things.

I'm exercising this way: walk moderately 15 minutes, Then from minutes 15-30 or 35, I run 20 seconds as fast as I can, then walk slow to recover... then do it again... 6-8 times. I love it. I feel great and this was on the advice of Mike Bruce in Somerset Kentucky. I worked with his wife.

I'm reading a book about obesity. Had 2 great ideas that I can do and want to share.

1. Before you binge on cookies or chocolate candy--- eat 2 bananas and dark chocolate (> 70% cocoa)

2. Before you binge on ice cream, eat 2 popsicles.....

Oh I get it. Its a trick.... Those two tips will take the urge away.... I get it, I get it.

Well, I feel pretty good. Exercise, more water, chia seeds, and some brown rice and beans and fruits and veggies x 2 days.

Off to work for the night.
oh yes-- raw apple pie. I'll post photos later.

Finding my way....

Wt: 273.7

PS-- I'll start with a "p.s." and let you know that I never made it 24 hours sugar-free. My last post in November 2011 said I was going off sugar cold turkey. Right. didn't happen.


Hi again,
Its been an interesting 2012 so far. Inspired by my brother's weight loss over the holidays-- when I saw him he had lost 35 lbs (and currently is maintaining a 45 lb loss), I decided the time had come to get serious this year about diet and exercise. Armed with the motivation that I'll be a Nurse Practitioner in 18 months and I do not want to be an obese NP, and with my brother as my diet buddy, I got started....

My brother wanted me to weigh each day. Now I've always had a love/hate relationship with the scale. Well, mostly a hate relationship. Weighing every day was mental torture. But each day we texted our weight, food intake and exercise to each other. I also started working out 5 days a week at the wellness center at Southern. In fact, I even hired a personal trainer for some extra wisdom, motivation and accountability.

2 months into it, I've lost nothing. Well, I did lose 8 lbs, (from 274 to 266) but now as you can see I'm back up. I hung in there for 5 weeks pretty well, but was frustrated with the extremely slow weight loss. After all, aren't obese people supposed to drop tons of pounds the first month? So I started reading books. Books, blogs, websites, research articles, etc. I filled my brain and my Nook with all sorts of information on weight loss, fat loss, food addiction, sugar addiction, hi carb, low carb, no carb, no protein, lol.... I read up on slow-burn cardio exercise, and interval training.... I even went for a Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) test and a VO2 Max test.

And here is what I've learned: There are as many opinions on weight loss out there as there are people and websites. You can literally find whatever you want on the internet, and I swear each plan has research to back it up. With my mind swimming with conflicting information, I gave up for a couple weeks and immersed myself in peanut-butter chocolate ice cream.

Here's what I've decided. Its kind of a conglomeration of everything out there....
1. I want to be healthy.
2. I want to feel good every day
3. I like coffee with creamer
4. I *need* coffee with creamer as long as I'm stuck on night shift
5. I think we're better off with few animal products in our diet
6. I think good carbs are good for you-- brown rice, pinto beans, etc
7. I think Mexican food is terrible for me yet I'll always love it and eat it
8. I'm not sure if lots of fruit is good for me or bad for me, but I'm fairly certain its better for me than peanut butter chocolate ice cream
9. My body doesn't like to lose weight :-(
10. I don't like to weigh
11. I do enjoy exercising, and thanks t0 Mike Bruce in Somerset, KY for a new exercise routine that I'm enjoying and challenged by.
12. Sugar addiction or not, I can benefit from a support group
13. Sugar is not a safe food for me. One bite makes me want lots more of it. Makes me obsessed.
14. I like water, so I can drink lots of it.
15. I think juicing and green smoothies are good for me and I can do those too.
16. Even if I stay fat, I want to feel good, so I need to exercise and eat good.
17. I'll always turn to ice cream when feeling down. Just deal with it. If someday I get the victory, great! But meanwhile, accept it and don't berate myself for it. Beating myself up only makes me want even more.
18. There are a thousand ways to lose weight, so rather than research the perfect way, I just need to live life, exercise daily and eat fruits and veggies.

At any rate, here I go again on the blog. I definitely am enjoying exercise even if I never lose a pound, because it makes me feel good. I think anything "extreme" will be short term-- as far as a juice fast, or the rice diet, etc... But perhaps a combination of them would be worth a try. So yes, I'm still trying to figure it out as I go. And if I die fat, well, its because I just couldn't let go of that mexican and ice cream.